"Daniel Randall left Liberty Bay Recovery Center on Forest Avenue in Portland at 10 a.m. Thursday, having just completed a 90-day recovery program for alcohol treatment. He then bought a shotgun, drove to the house and broke in through the garage door because he did not have a key. He killed his daughter at 2 p.m. and spray-painted messages in five rooms of the house before killing himself." Portland Press Herald

Our friends at Sandy Hook Promise made a PSA about recognizing warning signs for a potential school shooting. "'The one message is I want people to know that gun violence is preventable when you know the signs,' said Nicole Hockley, founder and managing director of Sandy Hook Promise. Her son Dylan, a first-grader, was killed at Sandy Hook. 'That’s a big eye opener in itself. People don’t think about gun violence in this way. We think about imminent danger, active shooter drills or lockdowns. This is about prevention.'" Watch Video

"It is not yet known how Norman J. Strobel got the gun he used to shoot two men: one in Casco, who was injured, and a second at this Naples mobile home, who was killed. Strobel would have failed the required federal background check at a licensed firearms dealer – but a private sale would have allowed him to avoid such scrutiny."

Norman Strobel took his ex-girlfriend's two dogs from her home a week ago. She had a protection order against him that he repeatedly violated. He shouldn't have had a handgun when he arrived at his ex-girlfriend's camp because of the protective order and his multiple felonies. Richard Dickema is dead, Strobel is dead, and Jason Almedia was shot four times.

We must do more to keep guns out of the hands of violent men in Maine.

Events commemorating the fourth anniversary of the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, will be held across the country. In Bangor a candlelight vigil will take place on Wednesday, December 14th, at 5:15 PM, in Pierce Park (adjacent to the Bangor Public Library). Candles will be lit to remember not only the victims and families of the Sandy Hook shooting but also all those who have been traumatized by the ongoing epidemic of gun violence in America since that tragic day. The theme of this vigil, sponsored by the Northern Maine Chapter of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, is We Remember.

So far this year over 50,000 individuals in the United States have been victimized by gun violence according to the Gun Violence Archive. 605 children between the ages of 0-11 have been killed or injured by a firearm. Add to that family members and friends and you have a large segment of our population traumatized by gun violence every year.

Those wishing to attend the Bangor vigil are asked to bring a candle and a toy/gift to donate as a gesture of hope that citizens can make a difference if they come together to take sensible steps to reduce the toll taken by gun violence. A silent vigil will be held for 15 minutes and then a remembrance will be offered. The toys will be donated to the Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance which will distribute them to families that have been touched by violence. Inclement weather—except for a blizzard making driving unsafe—will not cause the event to be canceled. For more information, contact Coordinator Mary Anne Royal at northernme@mainegunsafety.org.

"Question 3 is about recognizing that, because of Maine’s law allowing private gun sales to forego background checks and paper trails, at least one of our very own was taken from us and now we are unable to achieve justice for her murder.

Darien wasn’t just a statistic, she was a Portlander, a Mainer, one of us.

We owe it to Darien, to her family, and to ourselves to look at Question 3 for what it is — a chance to give her life even greater purpose than it already served, a chance to help heal a family’s broken heart, and a chance to make sure that no Mainer ever has to go through the living hell that they’ve been through again without the promise of justice."

"When I joined the NRA, it supported background checks for all gun sales. That has changed, obviously, but it is the NRA that has changed, not the value or importance of background checks." MGSC's very own President Tom Franklin explains why Question 3 is so important.

Thank you Andy and Barbara Parker for making the trip to Maine to share your story with our volunteers. A moving reminder of why thousands of Mainers are volunteering their time to talk to neighbors about life-saving background checks, “Our purpose in this is to save the next life. To prevent this from happening to another family."